Ukrainian Military Chief Admits Attack On Russian Air Base In Crimea

Saky, Russian Naval Air Base in Crimea. (Wikimedia Commons/Igor Bubin)

JAKARTA - Ukraine's top military chief claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a series of attacks on a Russian air base on the annexed Crimean peninsula, including one that led to the destruction of the Saky military facility last month.

In an article co-authored by lawmaker Mykhailo Zabrodskyi and published in the state news agency Ukrinform, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the head of the Ukrainian army, said the attack was carried out by missiles or rockets, without elaborating.

Ukraine has until now only hinted at its involvement in the Crimean attack, with a senior official anonymously telling Reuters the airbase explosion was the work of Ukrainian saboteurs on the ground.

Writing about Ukraine's response to what the op-ed said was Moscow's strategy to "keep" the war away from Russian citizens, Zaluzhnyi and Zaborodskyi wrote about "successful efforts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to physically transfer hostilities to Crimea."

We are talking about a series of successful rocket attacks on enemy air bases in Crimea, first of all, Saky airfield," the article said.

The footnote clarifies that the attack on Saky was a "combined strike" that took place on August 9, leaving ten Russian warplanes "out of service."